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2014年4月19日星期六

Black Shirt for Tiananmen Square

The gate of heavenly peace _ Tiananmen Square has no longer been peaceful since June 4 1989. Tiananmen Square Massacre, a war launched by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was set against civilians. 300,000 armed troops in tanks and armored vehicles entered Beijing fighting against their enemies of this war, hundreds of thousands of unarmed senior citizens, scholars, workers, university as well as grade school students. They were the peaceful protesters calling for political reforms, freedoms, justice and democracy. Most of them had never committed a crime. On the contrary, many of them were university students in teens or early 20s, with promising future and taking pride in the name “beloved children of God” by ordinary people. Yet, as a result of this merciless and completely imbalanced military attack, thousands of innocent lives were killed; among them were those university students and teachers. Till today, the families of the victims have never been compensated or consoled. Most of the families were parents with their only student children who sacrificed their lives in this bloody military killing. Today, the parents were mostly over 70 years old (Chinese expected life span is 72 on the average). Some parents have passed away in great grief. In May 13, 2012, Mr. Zha Weilin, a father of a student victim of Tiananmen Square Massacre committed suicide at age of 73. A few families of victims formed a group named “Tiananmen Mothers”, who would mourn on their past sons or daughters, husbands or wives, or parents on June 4th every year. Yet, starting 2012, the members of Tiananmen Mothers were forbidden to commemorate the lost kin.
Tragedies did not end there. Many citizens and students were arrested and imprisoned after June 4th Tiananmen Square Massacre. Li Wangyang, a workers’ association leader in Hunan province during 1989 pro-democracy movement, after 23 years imprisonment was released. He was blind and couldn’t walk by the time he was released. He was admitted to hospital for treatment. However, on June 6th 2012, Hunan police announced him dead due to committing suicide. But his body was found with two feet standing on the floor and legs bending at knees. His sister and brother-in-law were detained by the police for more than a year in order not to allow them to speak to the public as of what had happened.
In order to commemorate the victims of Tiananmen Square Protest, a campaign “All Chinese Wear Black on June 4th” was launched by internet around the globe on April 2nd 2012. In the very same year, many Chinese responded with great support. The most prominent and influential supporters were Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement of China (the “Alliance”), an organization that has saved many mainland Chinese who were involved in 1989 students’ movement from persecution by CCP. The HK Alliance have held Candlelight Vigil for June 4 Massacre every year since June 4th 1990.
This time, they had ordered white T-shirts by the time they heard about the campaign and immediately changed their order from white to Black T-shirts, even though white T-shirt samples have been received. In 2012 and 2013 Candlelight Vigils, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong citizens who attended wore black to show their opposition against dictatorship and state terrorism. Very soon, other protests in Hong Kong also used black shirt as a sign of opposing the authoritarian state systems, such as Hong Kong Scholarism’s protest against the brain washing patriotism course in 2013 and Taipei anti-trade agreement protest led by student leaders in 2014. Many Chinese language media reported we-wear-black-on-June-4th campaign in 2013, such as BBC Chinese, VOA Chinese, Free Radio Asia (FRA), France Radio International (FRI) and many others.
Why should we wear black to show our resistance? It is because the brutal dictatorship has become more and more severe. Chinese are persecuted and subject to tortures not just for pro-democracy activities, but also for seeking justice for individual cases. Tens of thousands of people in Maoming, Guangdong, China protested against PX projects, Tibetan Buddhists protested for freedom of religion by self-immolation, human rights lawyers risked their own lives to meet with their defendants in jails and detention centers…. All these are cracked down by armed police troops. People can no longer express their oppositions or protest, but liberty has gone farther and farther away from Chinese. When human rights have been deprived to an extremity, nothing but a black shirt can be used as a sign of protest against brutality and state terrorism. Here we call on everyone, inside China and abroad, support us with the “We-wear-black-on-June-4th” campaign. We can no longer keep silent otherwise we will become 100% slaves in a modern and civilized human world. We would be ashamed to tell to our children and grandchildren how we became enslaved and exiled on our own lands.
We call for all international media and individuals to help the voiceless Chinese to make their voices heard. We would appreciate if you circulate and forward this article.